A group of strangers threw a wedding together in a random act of kindness for a young Kentucky woman after she received the devastating news that her mother had just months to live.
Alahna Leonardo, a labor and delivery nurse, spoke out about her tragic news at the start of January, revealing to her local Louisville community on Facebook that her mother, who had been enduring an almost 2-year battle with stage 4 colorectal cancer, was told by doctors that they could do no more for her.
Alahna’s mother Malina Carnell, a real estate agent, told The Independent that after hearing the family’s news, four of her daughter’s co-workers organized her entire wedding by contacting wedding vendors to get the ceremony urgently rearranged. And thanks to the team effort it went ahead on Wednesday.
Her daughter had originally planned to get married in April but her mother’s diagnosis meant she would not have made it.
“It was incredible. We just got such an outpouring of love and community and they just all banded together. Before you knew it, they’d planned an entire wedding in just nine days”, Carnell said.
Everything from the photography to the caterers, to the venue, and even the flowers were arranged for her, she added.
Carnell revealed that she received the heartbreaking diagnosis just two weeks before the wedding with her doctors revealing that tumors had spread all over her body from her neck to her lungs, abdomen, and even down to her spine.
“It was just basically spreading faster than the treatment could keep up with – it was pretty devastating”, she said.
She told The Independent that she’d suffered from multiple complications after attempting various treatments including a clinical trial and a trip to German doctors in a desperate attempt for a cure as she had “run out of options” following her 2023 diagnosis.
Carnell’s story highlights the power of a social media post as she highlighted that all the people responsible for making the wedding happen were strangers who just wanted to do something good in the world.
“I’ve always kind of said just to be vulnerable and open to people and really it’s just an incredible thing when you share your own life with people and how amazing it is to just see people who can relate with you or just come together because they feel like they just want to help.”
Carnell said that despite her diagnosis she was overjoyed to be given the chance to witness her daughter marry “the man of her dreams”.
